Tag Archives: Jason Cohen

Last year, Jason Cohen started a new question-and-answer show for startups to go along with his popular blog. It’s like “loveline for startups,” and he called it Smart Bear Live. It’s a GREAT opportunity to ask a question of a true startup guru. Or maybe you don’t have a concrete question, but you’d like to validate a business idea. That’s great (but don’t expect coddling). If you are a bit farther along and want to practice your pitch, that’s fine, too.

Your next opportunity to participate live is February 9 at 5p EST. Visit bit.ly/sblreg to register. This is your chance to talk with not one but TWO startup gurus, because Jason will be joined by noted VC Mark Suster. Jason expects to have an interesting guest host on every show.

A little more background on SBL and my involvement … after his kickoff show, Jason asked me if I wanted to help out. I jumped at the chance, since Jason is one of my favorite startup thinkers. I had been wanting to do a question-and-answer show of my own, but Jason knows more than I do and has a bigger audience, so I think I can do more good by helping him with his show than by doing my own. Now I’m scheduling shows, guests, and callers, and I’m producing the audio. I guess that makes me the producer. If you’re reading this – I’m your IN 🙂

There are two kinds of shows – onsite and call-in. The upcoming show on February 9 is a call-in show. You can listen from the comfort of your computer or phone (don’t forget to register to ask a question), thanks to BlogTalkRadio. We’ve done two of these call-in shows so far; listen to the recordings here and here.

Last month we did an onsite event outside Phoenix to kick off the next round of AZ Disruptors. Hamid Shojaee hosted, and I handled tech and questions. Jason actually stayed in Austin and Skyped in. It went great – it’s amazing to me how well it works to have a room full of people engage with someone projected on a screen. Audio recordings from that show should start showing up on Jason’s blog soon. If you have a community that could benefit from a local SBL meetup with Jason on Skype, please email me to discuss.

Smart Bear Live is a really big deal, in my opinion. Jason is smart as hell and really knows how to dig into startup details. If you’re stuck, he’ll get you unstuck. He’s the first to point out that he’s not necessarily right every time (editor’s note: he’s still probably right), but it’s the conversation and probing that’s useful for ANY startup founder. Take advantage of this awesome resource and call in!

Finally, if you have an abstract question that you want to ask without actually getting on the air, feel free to leave it in the comments below (or on the registration page). I will sometimes ask those myself in between callers. I will make sure the answer gets back to you.

Finally, when you are talking with other startup founders and reach that point where you think they need some help but can’t really put your finger on it … send them our way to ask a question.